Love

Grandma has been here for a couple of days

and there's a lot of love crammed in that little bed.

On Land and Sea

Katherine is still obsessed with horses.

 Her Jumper in particular.

Jackson is obsessed with sharks

  and all creatures underwater these days.

There you have it.  

Our babies and their latest obsessions.

School Notebook

Jackson has been telling us recently that he wants the book, Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?  I know he's read it before, and I assume his class must have read it last week for him to all of the sudden start requesting it.  And request he has!  He's been doing well at school, so I surprised him with it this afternoon when I picked him up.  As soon as he opened the book, he started reading it!  He's been reading decodable books from school, but this is the first real book he's actually read (and voluntarily!), so I had to record him once we got home!

When we played the video, he surprisingly sounded so much younger!  This was also in his folder today:

On the other side of the paper is an excerpt from The Important Book and he was to try to sound out and write what is most important to him.  Apparently Daddy accidentally killing his fish made more of an impact on him than we thought!

Wet Weekend

The weather was nice and Jackson wanted to play in the sprinkler, so they did.

  Katherine tried her best to turn Rex into her pony.

 Jackson sporting his mohawk.

They definitely enjoyed the cooler weather!

Homework

Poor Jackson loathes homework and sweet Katherine begs for it.

Sometimes life just isn't fair.

Getaway

Zach had continuing ed classes last month in Natchez, so we had a quick getaway!

While away, we toured Longwood again,

 walked the grounds of Monmouth,

 ate at Mammy's Cupboard,

 toured Rosemont

 (Jeff Davis' childhood home; turns out the tour guide there is quite the character and allows tourist to go into each room and actually touch items in the home),

and came home to buy Zach a new truck!

A Trip to the Beach

We finally took our first vacation of four!  Jackson and Katherine enjoyed the getaway, but I think Zach and I need a vacation from the vacation!  We went to the beach and it was the first time for the kids to actually get in the ocean and Jackson LOVED it!  Katherine walked into the water and after getting knocked down once, she had enough and stayed behind to play in the sand.

It rained the next morning, so we changed our plans, backtracked some, and visited the U.S.S. Alabama and U.S.S. Drum.

Jackson really enjoyed all of the cannons and guns.

 Somewhere on board, they both came down with a case of the 'hungries'

and life quickly became difficult.

Not long after, we were starting to smile again.

Button-happy in the submarine

 After supper, we played goofy golf.

Jackson took the game seriously.

 When Katherine wasn't placing her ball right next to the hole, she was helping us play.

I'm happy to say we survived our first vacation together!

I guess we'll have to muster up enough courage to make a return trip since Jackson had the time of his life playing at the beach!

Pirouette

Katherine had her first ballet lesson tonight!

 I put her ballet shoes on her last week for the first time and she immediately put her hands above her head and started turning around.  I'm not sure where she learned that!  Her class also teaches tap and tumble, so it seems like she will have a fun hour!  The school prefers that parents don't watch but once a month, so I didn't get to see too much of what she did, but she said she wanted to go back next week!

The Beast

We have discovered that Rex loves chasing after Jackson's helicopter, and Jackson and Zach are more than happy to cater to this new-found love!

 {It's blue and in the middle of most of the pictures if you're trying to find it!}

 Occasionally, Rex lucks up and catches it.

 Once the batteries are worn down, Jackson likes to play chase.

Everyone joined in on this round!

 Typical Katherine in the back!  

She's always making us laugh.

 She's still in love with horses, so she gets a piggyhorseback ride whenever she can!

  And before we headed inside to call it an evening,

Jackson and the beast chased one last time.

School Days

The lazy days of summer are now behind us.  Katherine started 3 year old preschool this past Monday, and Jackson started kindergarten today.

Katherine's first day picture was moved to the backyard after a couple of wasps started chasing us, and since the sun isn't in their faces in the back in the mornings, I decided to take Jackson's there as well.

Katherine's 1st Day, August 5!

 Katherine is at the same preschool she started last year and thankfully is in a class with the friends she made last year and over the summer.

Jackson's 1st Day of Kindergarten, August 9!

 It's hard to believe our fella is in kindergarten.  When did he grow up?!  Zach actually took him this morning since his school starts at 7:35.  Jackson seems to do better when Zach drops him off, so I stayed home and waited for Katherine to wake up.  Thankfully she woke up early just as they were leaving . . . I was tearing up watching them leave and not going with them, but Katherine was a welcome distraction!

Zach took a picture at school for me since I wasn't joining them!  As predicted, Jackson walked right in, made himself at home, and started playing with his new classmates!

Our babies . . .

we're looking forward to a new year and many fun times!

{Oh, I failed to mention how excited Jackson has been about his red shoes!!  His dress code last year was pretty strict with only red or white shirts, blue shorts, and gray shoes.  This year, however, he has a choice between 5 different color shirts, a couple of pants colors, and several shoe choices!  He was probably most excited this morning about those shoes!}